Natick gets OK to hire high school project manager

School officials received approval from the state yesterday to hire a project manager to work on the renovation or rebuilding of the high school.

Charlie Breitrose/Daily News staff

School officials received approval from the state yesterday to hire a project manager to work on the renovation or rebuilding of the high school.

Interim Superintendent Joseph A. Keefe met with officials at the Massachusetts School Building Authority in Boston, yesterday, where he received the notice to move forward.

"We have been told to go ahead with the acquisition of a project manager who will serve as the go-between for the town of Natick and the School Building Authority," Keefe said.

The search for a project manager will begin in July, Keefe said. The firm will be paid up to $250,000 for the feasibility study of the project.

"Town Meeting in April approved an article providing $250,000 for the services of a project management firm," Keefe said. "At a previous meeting with the School Building Authority they asked us to budget that amount for the project management services."

School officials hope to upgrade or build a new high school to replace the current school, which opened in 1951 and was renovated in 1985.

Plans were under way to start a building project in 2002, when the district hired an architect to design the new building. Efforts were halted in 2004 when state officials announced a moratorium on funding new school projects. The hiatus ended in 2007, and the program was moved from the Department of Education to the State Treasurer's office.

Keefe said the new program is run differently and puts more power in the hands of state officials.

"Every step in the process of the building of a schoolhouse now must meet the approval of the Massachusetts School Building Authority," Keefe said. "It is a different lifestyle than what existed previously."

(Charlie Breitrose can be reached at 508-626-3964 or cbreitro@cnc.com.)

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